From 190.08 million UPI transactions in April 2018, it has grown to a whopping 13303.99 million transactions in April 2024. The value of these transactions cumulatively has increased by more than 7000% that is to ₹ 1964464.52 crores from ₹ 27021.85 crores during the same period. The increase in the use of UPI has been mainly due to the ease of the payment system and liberal guidelines.
While the use of UPI has been skyrocketing, many are still confused about the upi charges, the limit applicable on UPI transactions, and other guidelines by RBI and NPCI applicable to this payment service. So, this article will talk about upi charges, limits applicable on the transaction, upi merchant charges, rbi guidelines for upi transaction charges, and more.
What is UPI?
Before we learn about the UPI charges in india let us understand what exactly this term UPI means and how it works. So, UPI is the abbreviation for Unified Payments Interface which is a system that merges several banking facilities into one mobile application of the participating banks. UPI caters to fund routing, peer-to-peer collection requests, merchant payments, and other features under one roof. UPI is an original innovation of India; it was first introduced in 2016 with a pilot launch by NPCI with 21 banks as members of the system.
Unique Characteristics of UPI
As mentioned above, UPI has become widely popular, and the reasons behind the same are here –
- Round-the-clock money transfer using your mobile, even on the days when the banks are closed.
- You can have a bank account with any bank amongst the member banks of the UPI and you can access the multiple bank’s facilities over the UPI app.
- Single-click payment with a UPI PIN and two-factor authorization makes the transactions seamless and secure at the same time
- You do not require entering your card number, or account number, IFSC for every transaction.
- Payments can be done using QR codes too which makes the entire process quick and smooth
- An alternative to cash, and no hassle about paying the exact amount as you can pay any amount using the UPI app
- Merchants payments and in-app payments have mainly revolutionized the entire system and made UPI famous
You may also want to know the UPI Pay Later
What is PPI?
To understand charges on upi payments, another aspect of this universe needs to be talked about and that is PPI. This is Prepaid Payment Instruments or PPIs can be referred to as the method of payment using the value you store in a payment wallet. Like physical wallets, there are online or virtual wallets nowadays. One can store more in these wallets, like a physical wallet, and pay from them whenever required. Now these PPIs have an interpolability feature, which allows them to accept and send money between different wallets. With this PPI interpolability feature, merchants who use QR codes to receive payment are not required to integrate with all the PPI issuers. Money can be sent or received from any wallet and any bank. This makes it easy for both merchants and the customers.
Charges and Limits
Often news comes up that RBI imposed charges on UPI, and people get confused. However, is there any charges for upi transaction in real? The answer is both yes and no. Let’s find out how.
If you are a customer who is using UPI for making payments, receiving money, paying for online purchases, or any other purpose, then you do not have to pay any charges. Whether you pay using UPI or PPI, there are no charges for any of the transactions or the methods used.
However, for merchants, if they use PPI wallets for transactions then there are upi merchant charges. However, for merchants using normal UPI, there are no charges to be paid.
What is an Interchange Fee?
The upi payments charges which are paid by the merchants using the PPI wallet facility to receive payments can be referred to as the interchange fees. The merchant pays the fee to the PPI provider and the fee encompasses authorizing charges, processing fees, and other related charges. This interchange fee is the income of the bank or the PPI wallet provider. Let us take an example. Suppose, a merchant is using Phonepe PPI service, so, Phonepe will receive the interchange fee when the merchant receives payment from customers using any PPI wallet.
The interchange fee also varies as per the nature of the transaction and it is categorized as follows –
- For petrol, diesel, or any fuel purchase – 0.5%
- Utility payment, post office, education, agriculture, or telecom-related payment – 0.7%
- Purchase in a supermarket – 0.9%
- For insurance, mutual funds, or railways – 1.1%
UPI Transaction Limit
Apart from upi charges, another thing that UPI users like to know is about the limit on UPI transactions. As per NPCI, the limit on UPI transactions also depends on the nature of the transactions.
- For normal transfers – ₹ 1 lakh per transaction
- For capital market transactions, collections, foreign inward remittance, insurance – ₹ 2 lakh per transaction
- For IPO, and retail direct scheme investments – ₹ 5 lakh per transaction
While these are the limits on individual UPI transactions, the banks have their daily limit on UPI transactions.
For instance, SBI has a daily limit of ₹ 1 lakh on UPI transactions, on the other hand, ICICI has ₹ 1 lakh as a daily limit as well as per transaction, but it also limits the number of transactions to 10 in 24 hours. However, usually, most of the banks allow up to ₹ 1 lakh per transaction and daily overall limit as set by NPCI and RBI.
Conclusion
As UPI payments have become an integral part of today’s generation, any news regarding charges being imposed on UPI payments scares people, doesn’t it? However, the good thing is, until now there are no charges on UPI transactions that the customers need to pay. Even for the merchants, it is only those merchants who are using PPI facilities. So, make sure you do not pay any extra charges in the name of UPI charges if anyone asks you to pay.
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